Baltimore violence updates: 10 arrested after curfew, police say

After a 10 p.m. curfew took effect in Baltimore on Tuesday, many protesters went home, but police and remaining crowds clashed in the streets. On Monday, rioting broke out hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, 25, who died after suffering a spine injury while in police custody.

What we know:

A one-week, citywide 10 p.m. curfew began Tuesday night. Some 2,000 National Guard and 1,000 law enforcement officers are on duty.

After curfew, some demonstrators threw bottles and started small fires, and police used tear gas, smoke and pepper balls to disperse crowds.

Rep. Cummings urges protesters to go home

Police ask crowd to go home

6:59 P.M.

'Don't give anyone excuses'

Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times

At the site of the burned-out CVS pharmacy, a community leader from behind the police line is urging the crowd to disperse. "Please go home. Don't give anyone excuses to do something that's not right.... It's not about selling out."

One man on a bicycle has been stationary in front of the police line as if waiting to see what happens at 10 p.m., the start of the curfew.

Another man pleads with members of the media to leave, believing it will make the crowd go as well and save lives.

Violence bubbles up, and arrests begin

Curfew is 20 minutes away

Tension at a site of last night's unrest

On Monday night, a police vehicle was set on fire at this intersection. The crowd now is tense but not violent.

Ongoing

Live video: A view from the street

This video might contain harsh language. Scroll down for new updates.

6:07 P.M.

Baltimore schools to reopen Wednesday

Baltimore's schools will reopen Wednesday, Baltimore City Public Schools Chief Executive Gregory E. Thornton said in a letter to parents. Counselors, social workers and psychologists will be on hand to help students when they return to classes, and teachers and principals are “planning activities that will help students learn from the past days' events,” Thornton said.

After-school sports and activities will resume as usual, and district officials are in “constant contact” with police and city officials in case further unrest happens, he said.

Thornton said canceling Tuesday's classes was necessary “because of ongoing cleanup in some neighborhoods, lack of transportation through the Mondawmin transit hub [where rioting first broke out Monday], and most important, the need for district staff to plan and make arrangements to ensure the safety of students and staff at school for the remainder of the week.”

Plenty of emotion, with focus on peace

Night falls, and crowds stay

Some 'us and them' attitude visible

A peaceful push into the crowd

Some welcome good news

The Rev. Donte Hickman, whose church was building a senior center in Baltimore that burned down Monday night, might be able to rebuild the facility sooner than he expected.

When Hickman spoke with ABC2 News on Tuesday, the news station also set up an interview with an architect in Indianapolis to deliver the pastor a surprise. Michael Bluitt, vice president of HCO Church builders, offered to help rebuild the center.

"Your tenacity is really what moved me, and your faith," Bluitt said on ABC2. "God makes no mistakes. He wants you to have greater than what you initially anticipated."

Bluitt said his firm would create a conceptual rendering of the new senior center and set up a design consultation.

Baltimore councilman opposes calling rioters 'thugs'

Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes, on CNN, said calling rioters "thugs" is the same as calling them the N-word. A visually agitated Stokes said during a live interview that he was not happy with the wording used by both President Obama and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. While Stokes said he did not condone their behavior, he was against that label.

Looting and neighborhood demographics

Viral video mom: 'I don't want him to be a Freddie Gray'

Toya Graham, the mother seen on a viral video slapping and yelling at her son as she hauled him away from Baltimore's riots, tells “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” why she did it.

“He gave me eye contact, and at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that. ... That's my only son, and at the end of the day, I don't want him to be a Freddie Gray,” Graham says in a CBS video .

Her son, who is identified as a 16-year-old in a Variety article , reportedly was protesting and wearing a mask when Graham tracked him down.

FOR THE RECORD April 28, 4:13 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said the son was described as a 16-year-old in a Vanity Fair article. It was a Variety article.

--Ann Haley

3:33 P.M.

City is prepared for tonight, governor says

Officials aren't sure there won't be any more violence in Baltimore, but they struck a hopeful note.

3:23 P.M.

Typically it takes 8 hours to get the National Guard ready. They were ready in 3. We were prepared.

Mayor, police commissioner hold news conference

Musical respite during protest

Crime decreasing in Freddie Gray's neighborhood, police data show

There has been less crime in recent years in the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested, although the area has long been racked by drug violence and gang activity, according to Baltimore Police Department data.

There were 960 reported crimes in Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester and Harlem Park sections in 2014, a 15% dip from 1,134 in 2010, records show. Aggravated assaults (felonies) and common assaults (misdemeanors), generally considered the best indicators of overall crime, have also declined since 2010. Common assaults, which peaked with 321 reported incidents in 2011, fell each year afterward, dipping 30% in 2014, as compared with 2011.

Burglaries followed a similar arc, with reported crimes declining in 2012 and 2013 after a slight surge in 2011.

The neighborhoods are overwhelmingly populated by black residents, and police records show most arrests there since 2013 were of black men charged with narcotics offenses.

Baltimore church leader whose building burned during riots defends mayor

The Rev. Donte Hickman, whose church was building a senior center that burned down Monday night, told MSNBC that Baltimore's mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is doing her best to navigate through the uproar and violence.

“Who would've anticipated that something like this would happen?” he said. “This fire last night just put a light on a very dark situation.”

Officials are still investigating the cause of the fire, but Hickman said he believes the fire was deliberately set.

The senior center was more than just 60 units of affordable housing, Hickman said. The building also would have housed behavioral counseling, life coaching and HIV treatment, among other services.

Hickman said that he overcame major obstacles during his youth and he feels that it's his job to help those in similar circumstances.

“Dr. [Martin Luther] King said that riots are the language of those who are unheard,” he said. “So many of our children are just looked over -- it seems like nobody cares.”

David Simon, creator of the hit HBO series "The Wire" — long and widely praised for its depiction of Baltimore's race and class issues — has written a blog post calling for an end to the riots that grew out of peaceful protests Monday.

Simon's sentiments, which were echoed this morning by President Obama (see below), were also shared by "Wire" cast members including Wendell Pierce (who played Det. William "Bunk" Moreland) and Andre Royo (Bubbles) on Twitter.

Cast members Michael Kenneth Williams (who played the charismatic informant and fan favorite Omar Little) and Lance Reddick (Lt. Cedrick Daniels), however, have been posting and retweeting others' more sympathetic views, including a photo of a protester in a gas mask (Williams), fist held high, and a Facebook post urging critics to consider the looters' life experiences (Reddick).

Baltimore gangs: 'We did not make truce to harm cops'

Members of Baltimore gangs like the BGF, the Bloods and the Crips -- which came to a truce over the last few days in response to the peaceful protests and subsequent riots prompted by the death in police custody of 25-year-old Freddie Gray -- have spoken to local news media about their negative portrayal in the media.

"We did not make that truce to harm cops," one of a group of unnamed representatives told WBAL-TV 11, an NBC affiliate. "We're not about to allow y'all to paint this picture of us."

He said the moratorium on their myriad rivalries was agreed upon "to stop what's going on -- that's all we're trying to do. We want justice for Freddie Gray. We believe in that."

The violence "just makes us look bad," the representative added. "It's backing up what they're saying about us. They saying we animals, and we acting like savages out here."

'Mom of the year' hauls young man out of riots

Video is going viral of a woman yanking a young man identified by media outlets as her son out of Baltimore's riots, then hitting and yelling at him.

She was praised by Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts: “If you saw on one scene, you had one mother who grabbed her child who had a hood on his head and she started smacking him on the head because she was so embarrassed. I wish I had more parents that took charge of their kids out there tonight.”

Fox News contributor Charles Payne called her “mom of the year” on Twitter, a sentiment that quickly was picked up.

Did the city move too slowly in seeking help to keep the peace? In comments she made after the death of Freddie Gray, did Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake open the door for protests to turn violent when she said "... we gave those who wished to destroy space to do that, as well"?

Asked if the mayor should have called for help sooner, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan replied that he didn't want to question what Baltimore officials were doing: “They're all under tremendous stress. We're all on one team.”

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is exploring a run for the Democratic presidential nomination, will return to the state on Tuesday. O'Malley was in England and Ireland, where he was delivering paid speeches.

"All of us share a profound feeling of grief for Freddie Gray and his family," he said in a statement during the unrest in Baltimore on Monday night. "We must come together as one city to transform this moment of loss and pain into a safer and more just future for all of Baltimore's people."

Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for the 2016 nomination, tweeted about the Baltimore riots on Monday night.

Former Johns Hopkins University neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a Republican who also is weighing a presidential run, called the riots and looting in the city “very unfortunate.”

“It is vital to remember that the best way to create positive change is through peaceful conversation and policy ideas that display a commitment to resolution,” said Carson.

Baltimore mayor defends handling of Freddie Gray crisis

Mark Makela / Getty Images

“You can't see everything that I see, you don't know all the different moving pieces,” Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told reporters Tuesday morning.

“There are always going to be armchair quarterbacks that have never sat in my seat that see things differently, but this isn't the first emergency that I've had to deal with and I know you have to put in the work and manage the crisis on the ground.”

Monday's violence in Baltimore started in the afternoon when a group of teenagers confronted a phalanx of officers. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said a call had gone out to high school students on social media urging demonstrators to gather at the Mondawmin Mall, then move toward City Hall. He said officials had information that “a large purge of high school students” would be there.

A 2013 movie called “The Purge” was based on the idea of a temporary suspension of all law; however, the crowd did not necessarily gather with any intention of behaving lawlessly.

Batts said 250 to 300 police officers were at the mall, and they were outnumbered. Some students began pelting officers with water bottles and rocks, the Baltimore Sun reported. Things escalated from there.

Sandra Almond-Cooper, president of the Mondawmin Neighborhood Improvement Assn., told the Baltimore Sun it wasn't the first confrontation between these students and police. "These kids are just angry," she said. "These are the same kids they pull up on the corner for no reason."

The Baltimore Sun's front page

Rival gangs: 'We don't want trouble' in Baltimore

"We're here to protect our community," said Charles Shelley, a member of the Crips gang, with his arm around a Bloods member. "Him and me are supposed to be at odds right now, trying to kill each other. Now we're standing right here, hugging each other."

Earlier Monday, Baltimore police officials said they received a "credible threat" that Crips, Bloods and the Black Guerilla family would try to "take out" police officers.

“Many of the areas where we're seeing disturbances today actually never recovered from the 1968 riots,” which came after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said Lawrence Brown, 36, of Baltimore, an assistant professor at Morgan State University who studies housing instability.

Brown said the best-case scenario for Baltimore would be if the Department of Justice investigates the Baltimore Police Department the same way it investigated and demanded changes from the Ferguson Police Department in Missouri. “I think if there is no indictment, then I think you see the worst -- what happened today is really only prelude,” Brown said.

Unrest continues

Big fire not necessarily linked to riots

The large fire at a seniors center under construction in East Baltimore has been contained and was not necessarily related to the riots, fire officials said.

"Right now we are classifying it as a separate incident," Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Samuel Johnson said.

Pastor Donte Hickman of Southern Baptist Church said the building was to include senior housing, affordable housing and a “transformation center” to offer workforce development, counseling and other services.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts, who struggled Monday to stop rioting in the city, spent most of his law enforcement career in California, confronting unrest during a rocky two-year tenure in Oakland.

Batts presided over street upheaval twice in 2010, when a regional transit police officer was convicted of manslaughter -- not murder -- in the shooting death of an unarmed black man at Oakland's Fruitvale Station, and when he was sentenced.

He said he saw the "disconnect" between the department and the city it served and wanted to help. He said he also took the job because of "how many young people die in the city of Oakland -- people the age of my kids, in their 20s."

Baltimore mayor: 'We've seen what has happened when other jurisdictions have overreacted'

In a televised interview with CNN , Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she waited until Monday to ask for emergency assistance from the National Guard because she didn't want a greater police presence to escalate the violence.

Amid chaos, wishes for peace

Brandon Scott, 31, city counselor and cofounder of 300 Men March Against Violence, said volunteers in his group have been walking into the most volatile neighborhoods trying to defuse tension but have seen looting and violence.

"It's just utter chaos," he said. "You're seeing cowards leading people astray."

'We are going to riot until we die'

Joseph Tanfani / Los Angeles Times

At Church Square, an East Baltimore shopping center with several clothing stores and small businesses, looting erupted about 9 p.m. Eastern time. Throngs of looters dashed into stores and emerged carrying boxes of shoes and armfuls of clothing. Nearly all of the looters appeared to be teenagers and young men. One shouted: “We are going to riot until we die.”

Nearly an hour passed before police showed up in this largely residential neighborhood. A cruiser approached the scene about 10 p.m., followed by an armored vehicle. Officers chased one looter, while the rest largely scattered into darkened streets.

Ernie Nicholson, 54, of West Baltimore stood on the sidewalk and watched helplessly as looters ran past. “I don't know how it could have been averted. It's something I feel the city is really overdue for. Police just do what they want to do,” he said, adding, “I'm not saying this is the answer to it.”

David Simon to rioters: 'You risk losing this moment for all of us in Baltimore'

The "anger and the selfishness and the brutality" of the rioters in Baltimore disrespects the memory of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who died in police custody more than a week ago, writer David Simon said Monday night in a short blog post .

Simon is the creator of the hit HBO series "The Wire," and the author of two books about crime and police in Baltimore.

"First things first," Simon wrote . "Yes, there is a lot to be argued, debated, addressed. And this moment, as inevitable as it has sometimes seemed, can still, in the end, prove transformational, if not redemptive for our city. Changes are necessary and voices need to be heard. All of that is true and all of that is still possible, despite what is now loose in the streets.

"But now in this moment the anger and the selfishness and the brutality of those claiming the right to violence in Freddie Gray's name needs to cease. There was real power and potential in the peaceful protests that spoke in Mr. Gray's name initially, and there was real unity at his homegoing today. But this, now, in the streets, is an affront to that man's memory and a dimunition of the absolute moral lesson that underlies his unnecessary death.

"If you can't seek redress and demand reform without a brick in your hand, you risk losing this moment for all of us in Baltimore. Turn around. Go home. Please."

Baltimore councilman: 'I'm pissed off'

"I'm pissed off," councilman Brandon Scott said. "This is the city that I love. We can cannot stand idle and let cowards ruin our city. If you are an adult and you are out there participating in this, you are ruining the future for these young people."

The neighborhood that the rioters had moved toward, Scott said, is "still burned down from 1968," when the city weathered more than a week of violence after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"King said a riot is the language of the unheard," councilman Bill Henry said. "If we don't bother to teach our kids other languages, then we better start hearing them."

Los Angeles Police Department officers are riding in pairs in patrol cars after Baltimore police received a "credible threat" against law enforcement officers across the United States, officials said Monday.

A so-called "Blue Alert" sent by the Baltimore Police Department told law enforcement agencies across the country that they had gathered intelligence about a threat from the Black Guerilla family, Crips and Bloods to "take out" police officers.

Riots evoke the past

The Baltimore riots of 1968 erupted in the wake of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. They lasted several days, and six people were killed, 700 were injured, 1,000 small businesses were looted or burned out and 5,800 people were arrested, according to the Baltimore Sun.

PlayStations, piles of clothes among looted items

Baltimore schools will be closed Tuesday

All city-run primary and secondary schools will be closed Tuesday, Baltimore City Public Schools spokeswoman Edie House Foster told The Times.

She declined to comment further, directing a reporter to an earlier statement expressing concern for the safety of the 85,000 students in the city's 188 schools.

"We hope to treat this situation not only as a teachable moment but also a time for thoughtful reflection on how we can reduce conflict and violence in our society," said Shanaysha M. Sauls, the chair of the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners, in a prepared statement. "We will continue to be vigilant in our support for all of the city's young people."

--Laura J. Nelson

6:33 P.M.

Looted mall is secured

"We gotta think about what we're doing here," substitute teacher Loren Braswell, 53, said nearby earlier in the evening. "I love my city of Baltimore, but people gotta think rationally and they're not doing that right now."

If no actions are taken against officers in Freddie Gray's death, he said, "The community's not hearing that. If nothing happens, I think the city's going to burn down."

--W.J. Hennigan

6:25 P.M.

Freddie Gray's attorney: Rioting is 'dangerous to the movement'

The Washington Post interviewed the attorney representing the family of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old Baltimore man who died April 19 after his spine was severed in police custody.

For the most part, William H. Murphy Jr. said what would be expected during a riot: that rioting and looting in Baltimore could "damage the justice we're trying to get for Freddie," and that Gray's family was devastated by the violence.

But, he added, rioters may find that their violence backfires.

“If this becomes widespread, the mood in Baltimore will shift from what went wrong with the police and Freddie, to how the police are doing a great job at securing this chaos,” he said. “This won't solve the police problem. This is dangerous to the movement.”

--Laura J. Nelson

6:18 P.M.

'Never seen human beings act this way'

6:15 P.M.

First test for new Atty. Gen. Lynch

6:14 P.M.

'If you do not need to go out, please do not.'

Johns Hopkins University students, faculty and staff should not leave campus Monday night unless absolutely necessary, school officials said in a statement.

"If you must venture out, please check news reports first," provost Robert C. Lieberman wrote on the university's website. "If you are on campus and must go out, check with a uniformed security officer or call Security to be certain that there are no late-breaking developments."

The only incidence of looting was near the university's Peabody Institute, near Interstate 83, officials said.

"The situation is volatile and fluid, however, and we are monitoring it closely," Lieberman wrote. "We are in constant communication with law enforcement and will continue to keep the community updated as circumstances warrant."

--Laura J. Nelson

6:07 P.M.

Building in flames

6:02 P.M.

Then I called the president

5:59 P.M.

Take cover, Baltimore

5:53 P.M.

Baltimore city families deserve peace and safety in their communities.

Police call for reinforcements

Looting 'ain't for Freddie'

Dozens and dozens of officers in riot gear have arrived at Baltimore's Mondawmin Mall in gray vans, intending to stop looting at the shopping center.

People had broked windows to get into the mall, and dozens flooded in. They took PlayStations, clothing, anything they could carry.

Donte Reives, 24, who works security at the University of Maryland, was in the parking lot. "You hate to see your city like this. We're better than this," he said. "Everyone is not doing this for the right reasons. This ain't for Freddie."

--W.J. Hennigan

5:37 P.M.

Cops with billy clubs at the mall

5:37 P.M.

Police line

5:21 P.M.

I'm saddened that the City I love is in such pain this night. All of us share a profound feeling of grief for Freddie Gray and his family. We must come together as one City to transform this moment of loss and pain into a safer and more just future for all of Baltimore's people.